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February 5, 2014

I’ve been wanting to watch the movie Amour since it
came out, and I finally got the chance to this weekend.I thought, that’s my kind of movie, and it
was.

It’s the story of an elderly couple, Anne and Georges, who
are retired music teachers.In the first
scene, Anne has a ministroke while Georges watches.She stares off into space at the breakfast
table and doesn’t respond when he touches her.The rest of the movie is her slow decline and him trying to take care of
her, as she doesn’t want to go back into the hospital.

The brilliance of this movie is the way it captures the
everyday, the significant details.They
sit at a table eating and chatting, and everything they do and say is both so
right for that moment, so exactly mundane and beautiful, but also ripe with
larger significance.

For example, a pigeon gets into their beautiful apartment
twice through an open window.An
everyday sort of thing.But the symbol
of the pigeon means so much more.It’s
hope, it’s life, it’s escape, it’s love.The first time, Georges shoos it out the window.The second time he catches it by throwing a towel
over it and then sits in the chair petting it.

And in it’s very quiet and subtle way, the movie reminds me of
Million Dollar Baby, the Clint Eastwood-Hillary Swank boxing movie.There’s one scene in particular where Anne
refuses to eat and drink and spits water out that’s like the Hillary Swank
character in Million Dollar Baby, but also because they are both about the human spirit
and about love, respect, and dignity.

What Amour does in the medium of film, I aspire to do in
fiction: mold everyday lived experience to have such coherent resonance and emotional
impact.

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Bio

Tamara Linse ~ writer, cogitator, recovering ranch girl ~ broke her collarbone at three, her leg at four, a horse at twelve, and her heart ever since. She is the author of the short story collection 'How to Be a Man' and the novel 'Deep Down Things.' She lives in Wyoming, where she writes short stories and novels. To support her writing habit, she also edits, freelances, and occasionally teaches. Contact her at tamara [at] tamaralinse.com.